Old Santa Cruz Church & The Virgen del Pilar

The church of Santa Cruz was started to be built in 1608 for the community of Chinese converts who were living on the outskirts of Manila. On August 8th, 1625, the church was handed to the Jesuits who made it their professed house and provincial residence. The building wasn't fully completed until a century later in 1715.

The old church building prior to the Second World War featured Classical-Revival traits, a style popular in late 18th and 19th century Philippines. The facade bore a series of ionic columns and a dominant pediment. Inside, the church housed a somewhat typical Neo-classical retables and pulpit.

Featured in the center niche of theRetablo Mayor was the much venerated, ancient statue of Nuestra Senora del Pilar. The wooden icon of the Virgin of the Pillar was supposedly brought to the Philippines from Spain in 1643.

However, the statue's ivory heads and its cladding of precious metal point to a more local provenance. Heavy-lidded eyes and the pairing of ivory with beaten and worked silver are hallmark traits of colonial Philippine Santo art. The miraculous Virgen del Pilar is a survivor of Liberation for Manila as the war destroyed much of the church and its surroundings. Today, the Virgin can be seen enshrined in the side retable of the present Santa Cruz Church.